


Order

by unsettled



Category: Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-05
Updated: 2010-08-05
Packaged: 2017-10-10 23:10:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/105431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unsettled/pseuds/unsettled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hightopp is still in his cell disguised as a workroom. Stayne doesn't know why he is surprised by this; Hightopp's chained, after all, but somehow he thought he would be coming back to an empty room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Order

_"Off with their heads!"_

Hightopp is still in his cell disguised as a workroom. Stayne doesn't know why this surprises him; Hightopp's chained, after all. But somehow, he thought he would be coming back to an empty room. Everything else has been disappearing under his nose.

But he's there, kneeling in the wreckage of the room, pouring buttons into a jar with such focus that Stayne stops in the doorway. He can see signs of Hightopp attempting to set the room to rights; bolts of fabric stacked with worrying precision on a table, pins lined by color in a series of pincushions, needles marching by decreasing size down a length of white muslin. Small eddies of meticulousness in a whirlpool of chaos; it strikes Stayne that Hightopp is trying to set his mind to rights alongside. It is a far more hopeless task than this room. There is a needle missing, the third longest, and Stayne knows it must be maddening to Hightopp for it to not be in it's proper place.

If he hadn't begun to feel the slightest remorse for his actions, he certainly would now.

A button is lying by his boot. He picks it up, turns it over and over in his fingers as he watches Hightopp, who hasn't stilled. "Hightopp," he says, but the hatter has always been very good at ignoring things. He steps forward, goes to his knees beside him and hands him the button; Hightopp's hands slow, still, and he accepts the disc of blue with fingers that tremble. He darts a glance at Stayne, catches his eye and glances away hurriedly, hands returning to their task.

"Hightopp," Stayne says again, "Stop," and those fingers tremble; a button rolls away and the hatter's eyes follow it. Stayne's hands circle Hightopp's wrists; they feel brittle in his grasp.

"I have to take you to the dungeons now," he tells him, wondering if any of this is getting through. He gets his answer when the pulse beneath his fingers jumps. "Hightopp," he sighs, "you could make this easier on yourself. She's going to torture you; she enjoys such things," The wrists jerk against his hold. He loosens his grasp, but doesn't let go. "Just tell her what she wants to hear. It doesn't have to end so badly."

Hightopp turns his face to Stayne, and for the first time he is subject to that dreadful gaze again, eyes like diseased jewels. He stares; a breath passes, and another, and then - "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

Stayne's heart doesn't sink so much as _drop_, sickeningly. He closes his eyes. "I don't know," he answers, and feels Hightopp's gaze turn away. He releases Hightopp's wrists, rising to his feet. He looks down at the madman, and is reminded how very tired he is of being the villain sometimes. For once…

No. He will not disobey his queen; that way lays madness. Not even for a mad hatter who looks like sin and tastes like rapture and holds his heart with both hands. Not even for him. He calls in the cards; they take hold of Hightopp, who hangs in their grasp - unresisting, but still unwilling. He turns to follow them out. Something glitters in the thick bloody carpet. It is the third longest needle.

He holds it against the light for a moment before sliding it in its proper place.


End file.
